Nihilism as a concept describes a thought or way of life where "Nothing matters" or "Nothing is true". It is a very dangerous notion that stems from a breakdown of personal belief systems. From it, thoughts rise up that convince people that if anyone belief system is flawed, all of them are. Inevitably, this leads to demotivation and a pathological and sedentary life. A person with Nihilistic thoughts are unable to gain value and appreciation from experiences and this leads to a break down of motivation and goals.
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Nihilism as an excuse.
One of the advantages of living a pathological life is that there are no responsibilities except survival. As long as you can survive, everything is fine. This is an extremely destructive thought! If enough people live a pathological life, society will collapse. What will happen to innovators, artists and inventors? Would we have technological breakthroughs like Cryptocurrencies and the Internet?
Sometimes people truly are at the mercy of circumstance. Growing up poor or in an abusive house is not a choice...
Why then are there people that can break free from it? What is the limit to potential if you rather take responsibility?
Let us use an example: There are many cases of child abuse that can be attributed to abuse experienced by the abuser at some point in life. But should that be an excuse to become abusive? Why are there so many that do the opposite? Because they were abused, they will do everything in their power to be an improvement.
Another example of destructive Nihilism... Imagine starting up a small business. Even if you are offering a service or a product that everyone wants, there will inevitably be competition or a shift to other businesses. Nihilism creates the mindset that there is nothing that can be done. It is pointless to improve products because the competition will just do it too. Well, yes! That is innovation. But is innovation not a meaningful improvement at the end of the day?
Why your actions matter
Social media gives us a greater connection to the people than ever before. People in Africa are communicating with people in China and the entire world is connected. For every action that you do, there will be observers. Those observers are connected to other potential observers and very quickly, the scale of communication becomes global.
Steemit is an opportunity for many to take responsibility. So what type of input will you give? Will you be the motivator, the entrepreneur and the contributor, or does nothing matter?
